SEBI to probe bank stock rigging
Mumbai, May 6
SEBI today assured that it would investigate the alleged manipulation in the public sector banks’ stock prices prior to their follow-up public offering of shares The SEBI assurance for an investigation came during the discussions that SEBI Chairman M. Damodaran had this morning with a group of small investors headed by former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya in his capacity as President of Investors Grievances Forum.

Women who made it
McDonald’s loves buns made by this ‘ice cream’ woman
Ludhiana, May 6
One would think that someone who began with a meagre investment of around Rs 300 over three decades ago and runs a unit that is about to touch Rs 200 crore of turnover today, must be highly ambitious. Strangely though, ambition has not been on the agenda of Ms Rajni Bector, Managing Director, Cremica Limited, who says all she did was what she ought to have done, as is preached by the Bhagavadagita.

Aiyar for policy on petro prices
Indore, May 6
Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has called for a policy to fix petroleum and diesel prices. Talking to reporters here last night, he said the Cabinet would take a final decision in this regard.

Maruti registers Rs 8,536 m profitDeclares 40 per cent dividend
New Delhi, May 6
Maruti Udyog Limited today announced a net profit of Rs 8,536.3 million for the fiscal year 2004-05. The company board members also recommended a dividend of 40 per cent for the year.

CII moots job-related reforms in Himachal
Chandigarh, May 6
For bridging the gap between reservations in industrial jobs and availability of manpower, the CII, HP state council, has urged the state government to make employment more lucrative by updating employment exchanges, providing housing to the work force, besides opening up some categories of jobs for them taking into account their competency levels.

SC refuses to stay order
New Delhi, May 6
A village panchayat in Kerala today moved the Supreme Court accusing Coca Cola of over-exploitation of ground water for its plant at Plachimada in Palakkad district, resulting in a fall of the ground water level. Taking cognizance of the petition by the panchayat of Perumatty village, a Bench of Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia, issued notice to the Centre, the Kerala Government and Coca Cola and the state pollution control board, seeking their replies

Iran-India gas project may take 5 years
The
government said today that the proposed Iran-India gas pipeline through Pakistan would take at least five years to complete even if the negotiations remain on the track.

HCCI for lower conversion charges
Chandigarh, May 6
The Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) has demanded that the new industrial policy of the Hooda Government should aim at lowering the charges for conversion of land use (CLU) from agricultural to industrial.

Khattar’s term as MD extended
Maruti
Udyog Limited (MUL) Board today decided to reappoint Mr Jagdish Khattar as Managing Director for a period of three years or till he attains the age of 65 years.

Marconi to abolish 800 jobs in UK
London, May 6
Telecom equipment maker Marconi said today it would axe 800 British jobs after failing to win a crucial BT group contract, while union officials criticised the “cynical” timing of the cuts on the same day Prime Minister Tony Blair clinched a third election victory.

Mumbai, May 6
SEBI today assured that it would investigate the alleged manipulation in the public sector banks’ stock prices prior to their follow-up public offering of shares The SEBI assurance for an investigation came during the discussions that SEBI Chairman M. Damodaran had this morning with a group of small investors headed by former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya in his capacity as President of Investors Grievances Forum (IGF).

Earlier, the forum sought a SEBI inquiry into the alleged price rigging of shares of three public sector banks — Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), Punjab National Bank and Allahabad Bank — at the time of their public offering in March-April 2005. IGF President Kirit Somaiya said the role of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) should be investigated for alleged rigging of prices of bank stocks.

The share price of PNB stock was around Rs 361 at the end of January. But at the time of its public issue on March 7, it went up to Rs 520 and subsequently after the issue it came down to Rs 349. The issue price was fixed at Rs 390, the IGF said.

The Allahabad Bank public issue came in April 2005. The issue price was fixed at Rs 82 per share. In February, the share was quoted at Rs 69 and trade quantity was 2.97 lakh. The price was manipulated and rigged up to Rs 100 and the turnover was rigged up 19 times to 38 lakh shares, the IGF claimed.

The price came down to Rs 76 after the public issue.

In the case of the OBC public issue, against the quota of 2.03 crore shares, individual investors applied only for 78 lakh shares, it added.
— Agencies

Ludhiana, May 6
One would think that someone who began with a meagre investment of around Rs 300 over three decades ago and runs a unit that is about to touch Rs 200 crore of turnover today, must be highly ambitious. Strangely though, ambition has not been on the agenda of Ms Rajni Bector, Managing Director, Cremica Limited, who says all she did was what she ought to have done, as is preached by the Bhagavadagita.

Rajni is one of the first women entrepreneurs in the region. The timing of the venture’s commencement and the conservative approach affluent families had towards working women were factors that ensured things were not all that smooth for this entrepreneur. “As I came from a well-off family, money was not the factor for which I was working. However, it could have been a reason strong enough to stop me from working, as women from affluent families did not work then. People talked a lot about it, but then all that didn’t bother me,” says Rajni. And her firmness was what also changed the conservative approach people had towards women who worked.

Her ice creams were a hot favourite with friends and she initially started off with supplying them at parties. The turning point was when once she put up a stall at a fete where another leading ice cream manufacturing company also had its stall. “I had never thought people would buy my ice creams. But they preferred us to them and our stock was over in no time. That was when I thought of doing it on a large scale — the company got registered and Cremica was born,” she fondly remembers.

That was in 1974-75. Cremica is now about to reach an annual turnover of Rs 150-200 crore. The group has a couple of units, including Cremica Frozen Foods, EBI Foods, Mrs Bector’s Desserts and Cremica Agro India, which is engaged in manufacturing products like ketchups and namkeens. The company also plans to come out with readymade gravies shortly. The products are exported to Africa, the USA and UK.

She considers herself lucky in business as the concept she came out with was relatively new then. Her attitude to experiment and bring out new flavours and products was something relatively new and well received. Innovation and emphasis on quality is what she thinks helped her carve a niche. “I never compromised on quality, even if it meant buying expensive raw material. Now we are even importing some stuff. And I also ensured that we regularly came out with new stuff for which I used to read a lot,” she reveals.

While achievements have been many, including awards and the contentment, order by McDonald’s, Rajni says, has been no less than an accomplishment. “While they were looking forward for the best in quality, our selection was something I was really proud of.”

Cremica has been business partner of McDonald’s since the latter started operations in India. The company supplies buns, ketchups, toppings, “in fact most of the raw material,” says Rajni.

Cremica supplies one-lakh buns a day to McDonald’s.

Besides, Cremica has also partnered with Cadbury’s ITC and EBI Foods, a UK-based firm.

The company also supplies biscuits for the World Food Project, shipping low fat biscuits across the world, particularly to the war-torn areas of Afghanistan and Iraq.

However, it is family that has always remained the priority. “Though there never was this typical problem of maintaining a balance as my children were grown up by the time I started, I never compromised on it also. There were times when I would not sleep and work at night so that I could spend time with my family.”

Rajni says she never faced problems in managing people. “It is not about managing men or women, it is about dealing with people. Perhaps this attitude helped me and I always had full support of those working with me,” she says.

She also remains an equally active social worker. And today while her three sons have joined her business, 62-year-old Rajni remains as active and passionate about her work.

Her mantra of success? “Just remember that work is worship — whatever you do, be it at home or outside, treat it respectfully.”

Indore, May 6
Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has called for a policy to fix petroleum and diesel prices. Talking to reporters here last night, he said the Cabinet would take a final decision in this regard.

He said talks were underway for bringing LNG through a pipeline from Iran via Pakistan. “If we don’t take measures for energy security, the country would become insecure,” he said.

Likewise, he said the eastern part of the country would get gas from Myanmar and the northern part from Turkmenistan.

Presently, around 50 lakh tonne of LNG was being imported and this would be enhanced to 20 crore tonne in the coming years, he added.

Meanwhile, the government said today the high international oil price scenario, which has put tremendous pressure on domestic fuel prices, was here to stay but stopped short of saying if petrol and diesel prices would be raised in the immediate future.

“High oil prices (of around $ 50 a barrel of crude) have come to stay... We have had relatively long era of soft oil prices but now it seems high oil prices have come to stay,” Petroleum Secretary S C Tripathi told an industry meeting here.

He said the government was in the process of building consensus on the price rise to be passed on to the consumers.

The increased duties and spiralling crude prices warrant a Rs 5.26 per litre increase in diesel and Rs 5.77 a litre hike in petrol prices, without which public sector oil firms stood to loose Rs 23,400 crore this fiscal.
— PTI

New Delhi, May 6
Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) today announced a net profit of Rs 8,536.3 million for the fiscal year 2004-05. The company board members also recommended a dividend of 40 per cent for the year.

Announcing its annual results here, which showed a jump of more than 57 per cent over the last year, the company said MUL had registered a total income of Rs 1,13,538.7 million (net of excise) during the fiscal 2004-05, which reflected a growth of 19.7 per cent over the previous year.

While the profit before tax went up to Rs 13,048.9 million, which showed a growth of 69.5 per cent over the previous year, the net profit stood at Rs 8,536.3 million, up 57.4 per cent over fiscal year 2003-04.

For Q4 (January to March) of the year the total income was Rs 31,421 million which was again a growth of 9.3 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year. Net profit for January-March 2005 stood at Rs 2,594.5 million, up 65.1 per cent over the same period last year.

The financial results were approved by the Board of Directors earlier in the day. The board while recommending the 40 per cent dividend raised it by 10 per cent over the previous year.

MUL sold as many as 5,36,301 vehicle units during financial year 2004-05, which is also the highest annual sale since the company began operations over 21 years ago. It includes the exports of 48,899 units.

The annual sale of units jumped by 13.6 per cent over the previous year.

Chandigarh, May 6
For bridging the gap between reservations in industrial jobs and availability of manpower, the CII, HP state council, has urged the state government to make employment more lucrative by updating employment exchanges, providing housing to the work force, besides opening up some categories of jobs for them taking into account their competency levels.

Mr Rajender Guleria, vice-chairman of the council, said here at present the industry was facing problems to enforce the government’s ruling to employ 70 per cent of the total manpower from among the bonafide Himachalis in its newly set up industries. This, in turn, creates doubts in the mind of the government about the industry not been keen on giving jobs to Himachalis. Hence, certain measures have been recommended to both government and the employers so that maximum Himachalis could be absorbed in these industries, he added.

Mr Guleria said since it was not always easy to get local manpower from near the industrial areas, they would have to be outsourced from other parts of the neighbouring districts. The council has recommended that employment exchanges serving industrial zones should be upgraded for providing employable candidates from all parts of the state.

He suggested Himachalis should not be employed in industries like steel, cement and sugar manufacturing as their work output would be lesser, they being not accustomed to work in high temperatures. In fact, no objection certificates should be given to these industries to employ people from outside the state.

The council has already taken up the issue of providing proper housing to the work force at various levels and the proposal once implemented would solve the problem of migration of work force from other areas to these industrial towns. The council has recommended that main industrial areas should be developed like satellite townships of Mohali and Panchkula.

New Delhi, May 6
Slack domestic sales, lack of big generic drug launches overseas and higher research and development spending deepened Dr Reddy’s Laboratories’ net loss to Rs 51.9 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2005, from Rs 16.2 crore a year earlier.

The Hyderabad-based drugmaker today said its revenue was down 11 per cent to Rs 425 crore.

It said it had a one-time non-cash charge of Rs 27.7 crore during the January-March quarter relating to its acquisition of Trigenesis Therapeutics Inc, a privately held US dermatology firm, which was announced in May 2004.

Gross margins in Q4 also fell to 48 per cent from 52 per cent a year earlier, which the company said was due to lower bulk drug sales in Europe, and poor domestic and US generics
sales. Domestic sales dropped 23 per cent to Rs 83.2 crore. Notably, Indian drug firms’ margins have been hurt by higher research and development costs.

Essar Power profit

Backed by cost reduction and operational efficiencies, Essar Power has reported a 97 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 119 crore for the year ended 2004-05 as against Rs 60 crore in the previous fiscal.

Total income of the company stood at Rs 735 crore for the year, as against Rs 549 crore previously, a company release said here today.

The company board met today to approve the audited financial results. It also approved capital expenditure of Rs 53 crore during 2005-06 to modernise and upgrade its mills. The company achieved a turnover of Rs 546 crore during the accounting year under review, a rise of 13 per cent over previous year. The cash profit stood at Rs 49.3 crore during 04-05 compared to Rs 39.50 crore in 2003-04.

The Earnings Per Share rose to Rs 15.10 from Rs 10.99 in 2003-04.

In an attempt to garner a larger market share in the post-quota international textile market, Sutlej Industries Ltd today said it would invest Rs 62 crore to diversify into garment and home textiles product segments.
— Agencies

Mumbai, May 6
Reliance Industries’ Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Anil Ambani has met SEBI chief M. Damodaran amid his ongoing game of attrition with elder brother and RIL CMD Mukesh Ambani on ownership issues of India’s largest private business empire.

“Anil is understood to have raised issues of corporate governance and sale of Reliance Capital’s stake in the IPCL, both Reliance group companies, during his meeting at Mr Damodaran’s office in South Mumbai last evening, SEBI sources confirmed today.

The sources said the one-hour-long meeting took place in the light of a persistent demand by the Anil camp from the market regulator and Department of Company Affairs (DCA) to look into various issues of corporate governance in the listed companies of the Reliance group. Both Reliance Capital Ltd and Indian Petro-Chemicals Ltd are listed companies on stock exchanges.

It is also reliably learnt that the issue of Anil’s resignation from the IPCL Board also came up for discussion during the meeting.
— UNI

New Delhi, May 6
A village panchayat in Kerala today moved the Supreme Court accusing Coca Cola of over-exploitation of ground water for its plant at Plachimada in Palakkad district, resulting in a fall of the ground water level. Taking cognizance of the petition by the panchayat of Perumatty village, a Bench of Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia, issued notice to the Centre, the Kerala Government and Coca Cola and the state pollution control board, seeking their replies

The panchayat had moved the apex court after the Kerala High Court had declined to pass a stay order regarding the excessive use of ground water by Coca Cola and fixed a limit of five lakh liters for it
everyday. The apex court refused to grant stay before hearing Coca Cola.

The
government said today that the proposed Iran-India gas pipeline through Pakistan would take at least five years to complete even if the negotiations remain on the track.

However, the pipeline would enable the country to import as much gas as it was consuming today, said Petroleum Secretary S. C. Tripathi while speaking at an interaction organised by Assocham here.

He said the proposed multi-billion Iran-Pakistan—India gas pipeline project would become a reality by 2010 as the government was seriously pursuing the project.

“Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar will visit Pakistan to hold negotiations with his counterpart on the project, and an Iranian team is coming to India in the next few days to finalise the financial deal,” he said.
— TNS

Chandigarh, May 6
The Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) has demanded that the new industrial policy of the Hooda Government should aim at lowering the charges for conversion of land use (CLU) from agricultural to industrial.

In a memorandum submitted to the Director of Industries here today, the chamber President, Mr S.P. Gupta, said the CLU rates were abnormally high, which deterred the new industry from coming to the state. He said one-time exception should be made in the case of the existing units, which should be regularised and given completion certificates.

Mr Gupta demanded that the labour laws should be modified to keep pace with the requirements of the changing times. Priority should be given to the small scale sector, which generated more employment opportunities as compared to the large units. The government should disburse subsidy on generating sets, which had been pending since 1996. Export incentives in the form of industrial parks and quality testing centres should be given in the districts where industrial clusters existed.

London, May 6
Telecom equipment maker Marconi said today it would axe 800 British jobs after failing to win a crucial BT group contract, while union officials criticised the “cynical” timing of the cuts on the same day Prime Minister Tony Blair clinched a third election victory.

“A process of consultation on a proposed reduction in headcount of a total of up to 800 jobs in the UK has been instigated with trade union and employee representatives,” Marconi said in an official statement.

A model holds up a Famille Rose fahua style jar and cover with Qianlong impressed six character sealmarks from the period (1736-1795) prior to an auction at Christie’s in Hong Kong on Friday. — AFP

Kingfisher flightTirupati, May 6
Private airlines Kingfisher will be launched on May 9 with the Mumbai-Bangalore flight. Kingfisher promoter Vijay Mallaya disclosed this to waiting newspersons at Tirumala after offering worship at the Sri Venkateswara temple by placing the keys of the aircraft at the sanctum sanctorum.
— UNI

Inflation upNew Delhi, May 6
Higher food and fuel prices pushed inflation for the week ended April 23 to a 19-week high of 5.91 per cent from 5.64 per cent in the previous week. The inflation rate was at 4.32 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year. Inflation has been rising beyond the RBI’s expectation of 5-5.5 per cent for 2005-06 even though the apex bank raised its benchmark short-term interest rate by 25 basis points to 5 per cent to curb prices.
— UNI

Nalco debt-freeNew Delhi, May 6
National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) has become debt-free as on March 25, 2005. The company has repaid the loans taken from different financial institutions, Minister of State for Mines Dasari Narayana Rao told the Lok Sabha.
— PTI

BHEL awardedBangalore, May 6
The electronics division of BHEL, Bangalore, has won the International Safety Award, 2004, from the British Safety Council for the third consecutive year. The award would be presented in London on May 20, a press note said.
— UNI